The Descobrimento National Park ( pt, Parque Nacional do Descobrimento) is a national park in the state of

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...

, Brazil.

Location

The Descobrimento National Park is in the municipality of Prado, Bahia. It has an area of . It contains the Discovery Coast World Natural Heritage Site, a

Biosphere Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

Environment

The Descobrimento National Park is in the Atlantic Forest biome. It holds an important fragment of Atlantic Forest of the northeast plateau of Brazil, and the most important wildlife refuge of the south of Bahia. Protected species in the park include the cougar (''Puma concolor''), the characid fish '' Mimagoniates sylvicola'' and the bird species ringed woodpecker (''Celeus torquatus''), black-headed berryeater (''Carpornis melanocephala''), red-billed curassow (''Crax blumenbachii''), banded cotinga (''Cotinga maculata''),

band-tailed antwren The band-tailed antwren (''Myrmotherula urosticta'') is a species of insectivorous bird in the family Thamnophilidae. It is endemic to Brazil. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests. It is threatened by habitat loss. ...

(''Myrmotherula urosticta''),

ochre-marked parakeet The ochre-marked parakeet (''Pyrrhura cruentata'') is a species of parrot native to Brazil. It is also known as blue-throated parakeet and red-eared conure in English and ''tiriba-grande'', ''tiriba'', ''cara-suja'' and ''fura-mato-grande'' in P ...

(''Pyrrhura cruentata'') and

striated softtail The striated softtail (''Thripophaga macroura'') is a species of bird in the family Furnariidae. It is endemic to eastern Brazil. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane f ...

(''Thripophaga macroura'').

Administration

The Descobrimento National Park was created by federal decree of 20 April 1999 with an area of and expanded to an area of on 6 June 2012. It became part of the

Central Atlantic Forest Ecological Corridor The Central Atlantic Forest Ecological Corridor ( pt, Corredor Central da Mata Atlântica is an ecological corridor in the states of Espírito Santo and Bahia, Brazil. It promotes improvements to connectivity between fragments of Atlantic Forest ...

, created in 2002. It is administered by the

Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation The Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Portuguese: ''Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade'', ICMBio) is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment's administrative arm."Brazilian Federal Law 11.516/2007 (Por ...

(ICMBio). The consultative council was established on 1 February 2008, and the management plan was approved on 26 December 2014. The park is classed as

IUCN protected area category IUCN protected area categories, or IUCN protected area management categories, are categories used to classify protected areas in a system developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The enlisting of such areas is par ...

II (national park). The objective is to preserve a natural ecosystem of great ecological relevance and scenic beauty, and to support scientific research, environmental education and interpretation, outdoors recreation and ecotourism.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{authority control 1999 establishments in Brazil National parks of Brazil Protected areas of Bahia Protected areas of the Atlantic Forest